Category: Published

Micah  6:6-8 (MSG) – How can I stand up before God and show proper respect to the high God?  Should I bring an armload of offerings topped off with yearling calves?  Would God be impressed with thousands of rams, with buckets and barrels of olive oil?  Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child, my precious baby, to cancel my sin?  But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women.  It’s quite simple:  Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don’t take yourself too seriously—take God seriously.

Micah 6:8 AMP – He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God?

Observation

Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah circa 800 BC, was one of the prophets who began to speak for God directly to the people rather than to the king (as did Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha).  Micah spoke both God’s warning regarding injustices committed on a personal level and, also, of hope because of God’s willingness to forgive those who will commit to change their hearts.  Micah made it very clear that God is against those who think they can wash away deliberately committed sin with a sacrifice (the “I’m going to do what I want now and I’ll repent later” syndrome).  This portion of Micah is reminding the people that trusting obedience (listening and obeying even when we don’t understand) is better than any amount of sacrifice (see Saul’s big mistake in 1 Samuel 13:9-12).

Micah 6:8 brings pleasing God down to 3 things. 

• Treating others justly (fairly, decently, equally, honestly). 
• Being kind and merciful (forgiving, forbearing, compassionate, gracious) to others. 
• Walking out this life humbly (respectfully, simply, submitted) with and to God.  

These 3 echo another familiar set of verses describing how God wants us to walk out this life.   1 Corinthians 13 (NIV) ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  ^8a Love never fails.  Choosing obedience in these, too, requires a true openness and submission to allowing the Holy Spirit to change our selfish human flesh-driven hearts.  It can only happen when we condition our souls to listen to and obey the Spirit of Jesus in us rather than going with the pre-salvation flow.

Impact on Me

Micah 6:8 is a life-defining verse for me.  When the Word of God says that He has shown me what is good and pleasing to Him, I need to pay attention to what follows.  God is not asking me to fix all of the world’s problems.  He is asking me to allow Him to fix me so that others can see Him working in and through me, evidenced by the fruit of His Spirit and His love guiding my behavior, my choices.  It is my part to choose to listen, obey and walk humbly in submission to Him so I can be changed into what He needs me to be to do what He has called me to do. 

These 3 commands are all within my ability to choose to obey, irrespective of the circumstances surrounding the opportunity or what I think it might cost me.  I can choose to be fair, decent and honest even if the one benefitting is not a nice or honest person or, in my estimation, deserving of what he/she will receive.  I can choose to be kind and merciful (forgiving, compassionate, gracious) whether or not I receive the same in return.  It is my choice whether to steal God’s glory or give Him all the credit when I am fully aware that, without His power, grace and anointing, I would be merely another human worshipping myself and my accomplishments.  Living in this Micah 6:8 mode is part of the Romans 12 “putting it all on the altar” in order to be conformed to God’s kingdom, His principles and His methods.  As I choose this life style of consecration, the Lord will share with me the part I am to play in bringing others to the knowledge of Christ and the salvation available in Him.  The actual calling on each of us is God’s prerogative; we serve at His pleasure.

Prayer

Father God, Almighty, Omniscient, Everlasting, Savior, Lord of my life, remind me often of this simple list that brings You pleasure.  There are so many areas and individual circumstances where I struggle to hear and must weigh the options because I am not sure what is pleasing to You at that moment.  This simple list will help me choose.  My bottom line is always a desire to give You joy in Your heart in everything I do.  Lead me in doing so.  In Jesus’ name, make it so.

2 Cor 10:3-5  ESV   ³For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. ⁴For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. ⁵We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 MSG  The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.

Observation

Paul knew we needed to be reminded often that we do not operate on a purely human level.  The true battle of the ages occurs in the invisible realm of our souls – our minds and hearts.  What we can hear, touch and see may seem more real to us, but our minds and hearts are where the most powerful battle rages, affecting not only our life on this earth but also our life ever after.  These eternal battles are spiritual, unseen, and outside our human comprehension, so we should not be surprised that the weaponry for battling in the spiritual realm may seem strange but nonetheless is incomprehensible in its power.  We forget that all we can humanly do is nothing compared to what Christ can do in and through us if we will conform ourselves to “the structure of life shaped by Christ.” 

The religious leaders of Jesus’ time could ignore all of the miraculous power and authority in and through Jesus because He did not fit the picture they had of Messiah, a great and mighty warrior who would merely change their earthly situation – overcoming and driving out the Romans to re-establish a Jewish state.  How tragic that their fixed expectation caused them to miss Messiah in the flesh.  What we determine God should do in a situation – the plans and accomplishments we have determined are just and right in our human senses and culture – are not always in sync with what God is set to accomplish.  He is willing to trade winning individual battles in order to win the war.   Just obedience (doing what He teaches us to do) rather than following our flesh (what we want to do), whether we understand or agree or have confidence that His way will work, has a high impact in the spiritual realm.  If we will really be so gracious and forgiving as to turn the other cheek rather than be offended and strike back, the enemy has lost his power and control over us in that place – one victory for Jesus’ side!

Impact on Me

So, I want to always be equipped with “powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.”  This requires setting aside what I can do on my own, with my own hands, and becoming (surrendering as) an instrument in God’s hands.  Obedience requires that I take the Sermon on the Mount seriously because it will equip me with those powerful God-tools in my service to Him.  Obedience requires that I trade my human weapons for His weapons and trust that any cost to me is worth the benefit to Him.

Therefore, I recognize that the weapons of our spiritual warfare are the same ones Jesus used in His ministry – prayer, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control, grace, forgiveness, mercy, compassion, among so many others rooted in the relationship modeled by Jesus for us as He walked this earth and by Father God for us over the ages.  I must commit to take captive every thought of offense, pride, personal praise, revenge and every other un-Jesus-like judgment.  Will I always succeed?  No, but I do know how to repent and be restored.  Thank You, God, for creating repentance, reconciliation and restoration of relationship with You.

Prayer

Lord, cause me to be aware of the choices as I live out my day.  Teach me to war with Your weapons.  Let me be intentional in the weapons I choose for each battle, led and guided by You in how I fight, when I fight, and the battles I choose. I want to be an instrument in Your hands for bringing Your victory.  Help me on the journey of “fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.” I want to be obedient and accountable to you in all things.  In Jesus’ name, make it so.

Isaiah 9:2-7 NIV  The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Romans 8:22-25 Phillips It is plain to anyone with eyes to see that at the present time all created life groans in a sort of universal travail. And it is plain, too, that we who have a foretaste of the Spirit are in a state of painful tension, while we wait for that redemption of our bodies which will mean that at last we have realised our full sonship in him. We were saved by this hope, but in our moments of impatience let us remember that hope always means waiting for something that we haven’t yet got. But if we hope for something we cannot see, then we must settle down to wait for it in patience.

Observation

“For to us a child is born … the government will be on his shoulders. … Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign … over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.”  No matter what translation you use, this place in Scripture is arresting.  In this season of upheaval of our cultural foundations and trust in those who rule over us, doesn’t your soul ache for The One Who can truly be trusted to rule with peace, fairness and justice forever?  Doesn’t your heart cry out for a respite, time to recover, freedom from being on the alert every moment, a return to feeling safe and secure?  Mine does. 

Looking at the plague of troubles in our world, this promise in Isaiah seems like a foolish dream, so impossible, so hopeless, so insurmountable in a human context.  How do we answer when asked, “Where is God?  How can a good God allow this to happen?” The “fixing” of it all seems insurmountable. Where would one even start?  Jesus said we would have trouble in the world (John 16:33) and Paul tells us that “all created life groans in a sort of universal travail” to see the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah’s promise.  We are told we are overcomers in Christ and to wait with patience for the world and the evil in it to bow to the kingship of Jesus.  I guess we do need to pray for patience as we wait.  “The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”  We are not the fixers; He is.

Impact on Me

So, I need to start with myself – where I stand with Jesus and fully understanding what it means to be in Christ.  He was God’s answer, God’s fix, God’s eternal unfailing King of peace, fairness and justice from before time began and past time’s end. Every Christmas when I hear this Scripture, I have to ask myself who is my king, to whom am I submitted, where is my hope, on whom can I depend?  I can be ruled and moved by earthly governments, powers, and authorities or by the One called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  I can be first a citizen of the United States or first a citizen of Heaven. I make that choice.

Jesus was born and lived under two oppressive, unjust, murderous ruling powers – the Romans and the Sanhedrin – but, through faithfulness and obedience to God’s rule, His plan, managed to become the pivot point on which my eternal destination rests because He simply chose to be first a citizen of Heaven.  I do not ignore my responsibilities as a citizen of my country and am not unmoved by the actions of earthly ruling authorities; I strive to honor God in obeying the laws that do not dishonor God, praying for unity and for my leaders to be ruled by Heaven (rendering to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s).

I also remember Daniel’s prayer (see below) and find peace and comfort in knowing that, regardless of the circumstances, what I see and how we as people can mess things up, God controls the destiny of all nations and people. Because He has assigned me in the United States, He has a purpose for me here and, if I will be like Jesus and choose to be first a citizen of Heaven in all I do, perhaps others will chose to emigrate and also become citizens of Heaven. All of this is possible because this child was born to us, given to us as a gift. What an awesome gift He is!

Prayer

Lord, I choose to set my heart, soul and mind to be always first a citizen of Heaven, to put my hope in You as the One Who controls all destinies, to put my faith in the One You have chosen to rule and allow His light to pierce the darkness around me, to embrace this Son given to us and rejoice as I allow His kingdom to rule in me and spill over on everyone I meet, everyone I hug, everyone who will hear You speak through me. I pray this all in the name of Jesus. Make it so.

Daniel 2:20-23 NIV  Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king.

Luke 10: 25-28 MSG ²⁵ Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”  ²⁶ He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”  ²⁷ He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”  ²⁸ “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 MSG  If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.  ² If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.  If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Observation & Impact on Me

Some themes are consistent over centuries regardless of how the world changes (societal mores, advances in technology/science, across various cultures/traditions). People and their primary needs and goals are basically the same across the millennia.  We just adjust the “why/what/how” to fit the current times. Love is one of these constant themes and has so many dimensions and definitions, so many expressions.  Jesus emphasized that loving God and others was the right answer to gaining eternal life.  And then He told the parable of the Good Samaritan to illustrate the kind of love He meant – unselfish, sacrificial love – the kind He Himself was willing to give. 

In the second passage, Paul is talking to the church about how works done for any reason other than love are worthless.  Eloquent loveless words are just noise like the “creaking of a rusty gate”.  Miracles of power and faith worked without love gain nothing.  Great sacrifices, even unto death, without love get you nowhere in God’s kingdom.  How do we ensure that love is the driving force for all we do?  What kind of love are we asked to be the root of all our works in the name of the Lord?

Here is one Bernard of Clairvaux who can speak to us across the centuries. Bernard was monk born in the 11th century. He was Pauline in his intensity (fasting food and sleep until it damaged his health), his apostolic energy (founded 70 monasteries) and his influence (he advised the Pope). He wrote much on love and how true love, the love of 1 Corinthians 13, will humble us so He can be exalted.  He gives us 4 stages of love on the journey of developing a personal relationship with God, living daily in the sense of His presence, making what we do count for the Kingdom, through the kind of love that brings eternal life.

1. The love of oneself for the sake of oneself. Everyone starts here. Our reality without God is self-centered, focused on self-preservation and self-promotion.

2. The love of God for the sake of oneself. This is where we love God because He loves, cares, and does for us. This is where we begin when we first turn to God. We lay our needs before God and begin to learn to trust Him to be our source of provision, our defender, our refuge, our strength. It is a beautiful and necessary place on the journey. However, if our prayers always consist of only asking God to do something for us, to preserve us in blessing, the danger arises that our worship, praise and gratitude will depend upon God’s beneficial response.  Remaining here, we could come to believe that lack of blessing translates to lack of favor with God or even doubting the reality of our redemption and our value in Christ.  We need to travel on.

3. The love of God for the sake of God. This is where we realize that God has worth simply because of Who He is and not because of what He does for us. This is where our worship changes because of the revelation of joy and wonder of His love for us, how He gave us value by creating beauty in the world, by making us in His image, by giving Himself to redeem us. This beautiful place is where we accept that blessing, sacrifice, obedience, lack, loss and persecution may all be part of our faith basic training to make us ready and equipped to serve Him, be an integral part of His plan. Shouldn’t this be the ultimate, the final stage? Bernard says not so.

4. The love of oneself for the sake of God. This is when we accept that God molded, shaped and made us fearfully and wonderfully on purpose for a specific purpose and carefully placed us in the Body of Christ to fulfill His will and eternal plan. This stage is where we submit, saying “yes” regardless of the cost, becoming meek and humble, accepting that we are made by God’s own hand.  This is where we stop comparing ourselves to others, stop envying another’s gifting, stop weighing our physical abilities, characteristics, talents, skills, and resources on the world’s scales of achievement, performance, and possibility, stop questioning God’s wisdom on how He equips and uses us, accepting that the cost to us is worth the benefit to Him, and begin to seek God for how to glorify Him in our uniqueness while supporting and encouraging others in fulfilling their part.  This is the place of Jesus becoming man, Jesus in the Garden, Jesus under the whip, Jesus on the Cross.

Prayer

Lord, You are awesome, marvelous beyond description, gracious, merciful and almighty. You are worthy of all glory, honor and praise. You are love and Your eternal plan is to wield that overpowering, overwhelming love as a weapon until all evil has expended every weapon and effort of its own and been forever and completely defeated.  I pray that my submission and obedience will be complete and consistent, rooted in Your strength and faithfulness, never shaken by the fearsome possibilities of individual battles, never diminished by what may be suffered or lost. Teach me to be meek and humble, like Jesus, so that my service will be rooted in the Jesus kind of love, joyful and freely given and, in the end, judged faithful and good.  Make it so, Lord, in Jesus’ name.

Philippians 4:4-7 NIV  Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:4-7 MSG Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute! Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Observation

Paul wrote these words as a prisoner, unsure of the outcome (v 2:17).  He considered every place in which he found himself as God’s current assignment and every challenge or circumstance as an opportunity to be a witness for Jesus. The intensity of his focus on serving, sharing and celebrating the Gospel caused the challenges and circumstances of the world to become just the road on which he traveled while walking with and serving the Lord. I am sure there was great temptation to turn his eyes down on the road when things got rocky, steep, or slippery, but he chose to keep his eyes off the road and on his traveling companion instead, celebrating and singing as he looked to Jesus for stability, provision and peace (“a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good”) on the journey.  His soul was so securely rooted in God’s promises that he could withstand and overcome all the world or the Enemy could throw at him.  Joy and peace resided with him wherever he went and in whatever circumstance he found himself.

Impact on Me

Challenges and circumstances are difficult to put in proper perspective while they are buffeting us.  They make themselves so insistent, so visible and so urgent to our senses, triggering our emotions, old wounds and fears.  We may feel surrounded and besieged. At the beginning of my journey, they were much more tangible, louder and larger, than the intangible promises voiced by an invisible God.  My performance-based mind could become over-heated with reviewing scenarios and solutions – what might happen, how can I fix this, what can I do to prevent disaster or loss, why does this have to keep cropping up, how much is this going to hurt, and so on.  How I responded to challenges and circumstances depended on the decisions made by my soul.  As I journeyed with Jesus, through the experience of His presence, my soul  became increasingly less conditioned to respond according to the flesh/world.  I learned to lean on and look to Jesus for direction, protection and strength rather than depending solely on my human abilities and what I deemed possible. 

If our souls are conditioned to respond according to the Word and the Holy Spirit, then, like Paul, we can celebrate each moment, watching for opportunities to bless and encourage others, trusting that Jesus will take care of all we need on the road ahead.  We, too, can have that peace (a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good) regardless of the conditions on the road we travel.  So, the choice is ours.  I have found that when I stop and lift my eyes off the current challenge or circumstance, I always find Jesus reminding me of His love, grace, care and provision, offering me His peace and joy in place of my fear, doubt and failures.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, I pray that You will help me keep my eyes on You and my ears tuned to Your voice alone on this current stretch of rocky road. The way can often be dark, stormy and frightening, but, as long as You go with me, I can rejoice and encourage others to join us on the way, finding that “sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good”. Help me to find those along the road I travel who are lost, frightened, hopeless and weary, full of fear and doubt, and introduce them to You, inviting them to join us and become Your disciples.  May they see the joy and peace I have because of You in and with me so that they will become hungry to know You and find the same. Make it so.  Amen.